The context passing APIs allow the Blackboard Learning System to pass data to URLs requiring that data in a query string. To see an example of this type of URL, simply look at the URL for any course. The last part of the URL is url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=<unique_id> where the <unique_id> is a variable. It is variables such as this that can be passed using the context passing APIs.
Context passing is especially useful when implementing System Extensions that require content from Blackboard Learning System to generate a URL. To protect the transfer of possibly sensitive data as part of a context passing function, context encryption using Cryptix (Blowfish) can be used to secure the data transfer instead of the standard Base64Encoding.
Select Manage Context Encryption Keys from the Security and Integration section of the System Control Panel.
The cryptix32.jar file must be downloaded and the Blackboard Learning System configured before the features on the Manage Context Encryption Keys page become available. Follow the steps below:
Step 1 Download the cryptix32.jar file from the Cryptix Web site (http://www.cryptix.org)
Step 2 Put cryptix32.jar in blackboard/systemlib
Step 3 Create the directory blackboard/config/tomcat/classpath/cryptix-shared.classpath.bb. The .bb file should contain the following: @@bbconfig.basedir@@/systemlib/cryptix32.jar
Step 4 Run blackboard/tools/admin/PushConfigUpdates.sh
Step 5 In the System Control Panel, select Manage Context Encryption Keys.
The following functions are available from the Manage Context Encryption Keys page:
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To . . . |
click . . . |
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create a new key |
Create New Context Encryption Key. A new key will be created and used by the Blackboard Learning System. For outside URLs to decipher context-passed data the key must be downloaded and made accessible to the outside URL.
Creating a new key will remove the existing key. Any existing context-passing System Extensions that rely on the key will not work until the new key is made available. |
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download an existing key |
Download Existing Context Encryption Key. A key must be created before it can be downloaded and shared. |